Monday, November 07, 2005
Michael's Corner: A Values-Based Democratic Platform: Plank 1
Leadership on the political right in this country is either strong, cunning or down-right brilliant. Consequently, the Dems have not been able to match it shot for shot for several years.
How else can we explain a country that is divided down the middle according to all of the polls, but held at ransom by a minority of strident right-wing demagogues? The answer can only be that Republicans have the edge in Leadership.
In the Democratic Party, new voices are emulating the grassroots movement that propelled the Republicans forward in the mid 90's, led by the Christian Coalition and Ralph Reed. A perusal of the Democratic Party website, the Blog for America or that blog's host Democracy for America reveal messages that are fresh, positive and proactive. Here is an example from the MyDD blog.
The current leader of the party, unfortunately, has been unable to articulate the same positive message, even though the blogosohere originally adopted him as their hero. Of course, if one had to construct a negative platform, the planks would not be hard to write:
"We believe
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
We believe that the Constitution explicitly and implicitly provides for a government whose duty is to protect the rights of those individuals who submit to the authority of that government. Further, we believe that those rights must be equally distributed among all citizens regardless of their classification within society. The Constitution directs the government to protect its citizens' rights and provides further clarification of those rights in the Bill of Rights, the XIVth amendment and other sections of the document.
By subscribing to this belief, we are obligated to support laws which provide equal protection for all of our citizens and for all who are under the protection of our government. Such laws include, for example, the Americans with Disabilities Act, Title IX Athletic Programming and Affirmative Action. We are also obligated to oppose laws which would exclude citizens merely because of their 'classification': gay marriage restrictions, anti-abortion legislation which discriminates against a woman's right to choose, laws which would force individuals to subscribe to a religious tenet, such as requiring prayer or forcing an individual to swear on a bible if his/her religion forbade him/her from doing so.
Finally we firmly believe that while the majority of the democracy elects those who govern, the Constitution clearly provides for protection of the minority, not out of self-interest, but because of the values established in the Declaration of Independence as stated above.
How else can we explain a country that is divided down the middle according to all of the polls, but held at ransom by a minority of strident right-wing demagogues? The answer can only be that Republicans have the edge in Leadership.
In the Democratic Party, new voices are emulating the grassroots movement that propelled the Republicans forward in the mid 90's, led by the Christian Coalition and Ralph Reed. A perusal of the Democratic Party website, the Blog for America or that blog's host Democracy for America reveal messages that are fresh, positive and proactive. Here is an example from the MyDD blog.
The current leader of the party, unfortunately, has been unable to articulate the same positive message, even though the blogosohere originally adopted him as their hero. Of course, if one had to construct a negative platform, the planks would not be hard to write:
"We believe
- that the bankruptcy of the Iraq policy is leaving young men and women physically and emotionally anchorless as they try to reenter society after serving their tours of duty; that its depriving children of their parents, parents of their children, adults and children of the use of their bodies, hearts, minds and spirits; and that we have no earthly notion of how we are going to leave that country in the forseseeable future.
- that the R's are trying to take away the filibuster.
- that the R's are working to nominate a conservative rather than a centrist candidate for the Supreme Court.
- that the R's are manipulating the media in ways unheard-of in the past.
- that the R's are using religion as a litmus test.
- that Bush's neandrathal outlook on science and the environment is making us a laughing stock in the rest of the world.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
We believe that the Constitution explicitly and implicitly provides for a government whose duty is to protect the rights of those individuals who submit to the authority of that government. Further, we believe that those rights must be equally distributed among all citizens regardless of their classification within society. The Constitution directs the government to protect its citizens' rights and provides further clarification of those rights in the Bill of Rights, the XIVth amendment and other sections of the document.
By subscribing to this belief, we are obligated to support laws which provide equal protection for all of our citizens and for all who are under the protection of our government. Such laws include, for example, the Americans with Disabilities Act, Title IX Athletic Programming and Affirmative Action. We are also obligated to oppose laws which would exclude citizens merely because of their 'classification': gay marriage restrictions, anti-abortion legislation which discriminates against a woman's right to choose, laws which would force individuals to subscribe to a religious tenet, such as requiring prayer or forcing an individual to swear on a bible if his/her religion forbade him/her from doing so.
Finally we firmly believe that while the majority of the democracy elects those who govern, the Constitution clearly provides for protection of the minority, not out of self-interest, but because of the values established in the Declaration of Independence as stated above.
# posted by Michael Christopher : 10:51 PM
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